Monthly Archives: July 2010

The incredible shrinking solar cell

By | Published: July 31, 2010
ScienceNews: The next generation of solar cells will be small. About the size of lint. But the anticipated impact: That’s huge. Some of these emerging electricity-generating cells could be embedded in windows without obscuring the view. Engineers envision incorporating slightly larger ones into resins that would be molded onto the tops of cars or [...]
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House approves oil spill bill; stalled in Senate

By | Published: July 31, 2010
Associated Press: The House has approved a bill to boost safety standards for offshore drilling and remove a liability cap for oil spills, but a partisan fight in the Senate will likely delay action on a response to the Gulf oil spill until Congress returns from its summer recess. Democratic leaders hailed the House [...]
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BP Hires Gulf Scientists; Are They Buying Silence?

By | Published: July 31, 2010
National Public Radio: For months now, local scientists have been out on Gulf waters, advising the cleanup and measuring the damage. But there is growing concern that some of the best minds are being sidelined, since they’ve signed on as paid consultants to BP. "Everybody’s arming up for the big day in court," says [...]
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United States: Giant hailstone breaks US record

By | Published: July 31, 2010
BBC: A hailstone weighing almost a kilo that fell in the state of South Dakota has been confirmed as the largest ever recovered in the USA. According to the National Weather Service, the hailstone that landed in the town of Vivian eclipsed previous record-setters in Nebraska in 2003 and Kansas in 1970. Read the [...]
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Energy star ratings in disarray

By | Published: July 31, 2010
Australian: LABOR’S push to cut greenhouse gas emissions through the use of energy efficiency schemes was yesterday dealt another blow when building industry heavyweights discredited the star ratings being applied to hundreds of thousands of homes. Investigations by the building industry have found that the mandatory star ratings scheme is inaccurate and fundamentally flawed. [...]
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Indonesia: Planned REDD council to ‘ease’ ministry’s job

By | Published: July 31, 2010
Jakarta Post: Forestry Ministry Zulkifli Hasan said the plan to set up a special agency on REDD could take over part of his ministry’s authority on forests, but at the same time it would help the ministry focus on its main task of managing forest assets. Implementation of the reducing emissions on deforestation and [...]
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Ecuador to Sign Agreement Creating Yasuni-ITT Fund on Aug. 3

By | Published: July 31, 2010
Latin American Herald Tribune: The Ecuadorian government and the United Nations Development Program are expected to sign an agreement on Aug. 3 creating a trust fund to manage international contributions to the Yasuni-ITT initiative. Cultural Patrimony Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa told Efe Friday at an international book fair in Lima, where she presented the [...]
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Ecuador inks deal to protect oil field in national park

By | Published: July 31, 2010
Agence France-Presse: Ecuador said Saturday it had reached a deal with the United Nations Development Program under which donor countries will compensate Quito for leaving oil reserves in a national park untouched. "The signing will be held next Tuesday," Ecuador’s foreign ministry said of the deal, which prevents the country from exploiting the estimated [...]
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Thoughts on an Ethanol Pipeline

By | Published: July 30, 2010
Join the forum discussion on this post Local Production for Local Needs I currently live in Hawaii, and one thing I hope to help facilitate is for Hawaii to become more sustainable in food and energy. We have the natural resources here to be largely sustainable, but we depend on outside sources for around 90% of [...]
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Angola: Environment Minister Wants More Support From Developed Countries

By | Published: July 30, 2010
ALLAFRICA: Angola’s minister of Environment, Fatima Jardim, on Thursday here called for the assistance of developed countries to African projects of environmental protection and management of natural calamities, although the greenhouse gases emissions in Africa is reduced. Fátima Jardim who was speaking at the closing of a workshop on creation of the future regional [...]
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Controlling soot might quickly reverse a century of global warming

By | Published: July 30, 2010
Wired: A massive simulation of soot`s climate effects finds that basic pollution controls could put a brake on global warming, erasing in a decade most of the last century`s temperature change. Compared to the larger, longer term task of getting greenhouse-gas pollution under control, limiting soot wouldn`t be hard. Unlike new energy technology and [...]
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Phytoplankton’s dramatic decline: A food chain crisis in the world’s oceans

By | Published: July 30, 2010
Spiegel: It is the starting point for our oceans’ food chain. But stocks of phytoplankton have decreased by 40 percent since 1950, potentially as a result of global warming. It is an astonishing collapse, say researchers, and may have dramatic consequences for both the oceans and for humans. The forms that marine flora and [...]
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Declining algae threatens ocean food chain

By | Published: July 30, 2010
Agence France-Presse: A century-long decline in tiny algae called phytoplankton could disrupt the global ocean food chain, including the human consumption of fish, according to a study released Wednesday. The microscopic organisms – which prop up the pyramid of marine animal life from shrimps to killer whales – have been disappearing globally at a [...]
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NOAA has 10 answers to allegations that ‘Climategate’ disproves warming

By | Published: July 30, 2010
Science Mag: The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report today on 2009’s climate, which says the decade of the 2000s was the warmest since readings were first kept. In a phone interview with reporters today, Peter Stott of the U.K. Met Office, a contributor to the 224-page report, said the scientists who [...]
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Eight killed as wildfires sweep central Russia

By | Published: July 30, 2010
Reuters: Forest fires swept across central Russia on Friday, killing at least eight people and forcing the evacuation of thousands during the hottest summer since records began 130 years ago. Fanned by strong winds, raging fires ripped through woods and fields already scorched by the heatwave. The emergencies ministry said 866 square km, an [...]
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